In industrial and commercial laundry facilities, textile materials such as sheets, towels, wipes, garments, table cloths, etc. are laundered at elevated temperatures with alkaline detergents. The alkaline detergents typically contain a source of alkalinity such as an alkali metal hydroxide, alkali metal silicate, alkali metal carbonate or other base component. Additionally, the alkaline detergents typically contain surfactants or other detergent materials that can enhance soil removal from the textile materials. The detergents can also contain other components such as bleaches, brightening agents, antiredeposition agents, etc. that are used to enhance the appearance of the resulting textile materials. The textile materials that have been treated with an alkaline detergent are typically treated with a commercial or industrial sour composition that contains acid components for neutralizing alkaline residues on the fabric to enhance skin compatibility. A fabric sour composition that provides sanitizing properties is described by U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,013 to Smith et al.
In a conventional, industrial laundry washing facility, textile materials can be subjected to several treatment steps in an industrial sized laundry washing machine to provide cleaning. Exemplary treatment steps include a presoak step, a wash step that often occurs at a pH of about 11 to 12, a rinse step for the removal of soil containing wash liquor, a bleach step at a pH of about 10, several rinse steps to remove the bleaching composition, a sour step that reduces the pH to a level of about 5, and an extract step that often involves spinning the textiles to remove water.
Efforts are underway to improve the industrial laundry washing techniques and provide a reduction in processing time, cost of materials, materials consumption, energy costs, and water consumption. Exemplary techniques for improving cleaning are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,013 to Smith et al. and International Publication No. WO 01/48136 A1.